6/27/2010 - Up And Down Year For NJAC
Wow, did that go by fast or what?
What I am talking about? The first school year of the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference, which wrapped up about a month ago, ending one of the most historic years in high school sports history in the state of New Jersey.
After all the hand-wringing and worry, all the schools that comprise the NJAC made it through pretty much unscathed in what was a wild year.
So how would I describe the first year of the NJAC? (I’m asking a lot of questions today, aren’t I?). Well, two stories come to mind and I think they pretty much illustrate how the league went this year.
Here is the first story. With the 15 larger schools lumped into a combined American/National Division for previous round-robin sports like soccer, hoops, baseball, field hockey, etc., coaches, players, fans and the media were pretty much confused to how division champs would be crowned with every school playing each other once.
After the boys soccer season ended, I was talking with Pope John’s outstanding coach Brad Cameron, and I asked him who won the National Division. Now understand, Cameron is the type of guy who is on top of things, but even Cameron said, “I think Montville, but no one is sure.”
That was a major problem this year for the larger schools. No one seemed to know for sure how the champs would be named. Fortunately, I kept in almost constant contact with NJAC president and Jefferson AD John DiColo and tried to keep everyone informed on how the winners would be declared through this blog and on the Sports Beat.
A quick primer on formula was that there was an American and National Division champ named and the champion was decided by the overall record against every team in both divisions, not just against your own division, so for most of the boys sports it was a 14-game schedule and the girls 13 due to the fact that Delbarton is an all-boys school.
I would say by the time the spring rolled around most people had the hang of it, but it was still almost impossible to keep track of the standings because there wasn’t a source to go to.
Most of the local media did not keep track except for us here at Mugs Media. We tried to the best of our ability to keep track of the American, National and Freedom Division standings in hoops, softball and baseball. But it wasn’t an exact science.
Thankfully, the NJAC recognized the problem and realigned the big schools in December for the upcoming school year, which allows schools to go back to playing each other twice in each sport. This will make it a lot easier for fans and the media to keep track of what’s going on.
The new alignment will also cut down on travel, especially for High Point and Vernon, which had the longest rides of all the teams in the conference. (See new alignment below).
So what is the other story? One of the biggest complaints the smaller schools in the old Sussex County Interscholastic League had was they never really had a chance to compete for a league title in certain sports.
There is a grain of truth to that, but as I have stated a million times before, I don’t buy that argument totally. Plenty of small schools did their share of winning in the SCIL with Kittatinny wrestling and Newton field hockey coming to mind, both Group 2 schools.
But as the school year progressed, the coaches at the smaller schools, even the ones who didn’t like the idea of realignment, started to warm up to the fact that competing in the Freedom Division gave their programs a fighting chance in every sport.
This fact really hit home for me after the fall season when Kittatinny’s girls soccer team won the school’s first-ever soccer title, boys or girls. Matt Majka did an outstanding job as Meghan Hayes and the gang were named our Team of the Year.
This is not to say that the Cougars could not have won the old SCIL, but playing all Group 2 schools, except Jefferson, a small Group 3, gave the Cougars a chance right out of the gate and they ran with it.
The other examples came in boys and girls hoops and softball. Hopatcong shared the Freedom with Jefferson for its first boys basketball division title of any kind since it shared the SCIL crown with Vernon and Jefferson in 1983.
And it it’s not like Hopatcong has no tradition in boys basketball. The Chiefs have a great history but could never overcome the likes of Sparta, Pope John and Vernon.
In girls basketball, Jefferson, a power in the SCIL under Jim O’Connor, shared the Freedom with Wallkill Valley, which tasted its first girls basketball championship since 1984.
The Freedom Division in both boys and girls basketball was a dogfight every night and the league titles were not sewn up until the final games of the season, making for a fun year.
In softball, Jefferson and Lenape Valley, two titans in SCIL softball, shared the crown with Newton nipping at their heels at just a game back. In fact, if Newton would have beaten Hackettstown late in the season we would have had tri-champs in a seven-team division, talk about parity.
So what do I think? To use the old cliché (and who by the way doesn’t love an old cliché?), it was a tale of two seasons. A very rocky one for the large schools, Vernon, Pope John, Sparta and High Point and a big-time success for the small schools.
But as I mentioned before, the NJAC was proactive and addressed some of the issues facing the larger schools, especially travel and the whole playing each other one time per season nonsense.
The American Division is now comprised of High Point, Jefferson, Montville, Morris Hills, Mount Olive, Pope John, Sparta and Vernon, giving it an old SCIL flavor as opposed to last year when those teams were playing Randolph, Roxbury and Morristown and other schools from Morris County.
The new general classification for the NJAC starting in September and through the 2011-2012 school year is as follows:
AMERICAN
High Point, Jefferson, Montville, Morris Hills, Mount Olive, Pope John, Sparta and Vernon.
NATIONAL
Delbarton, Morris Knolls, Morristown, Parsippany Hills, Randolph, Roxbury, West Morris and Mendham.
FREEDOM
Hackettstown, Hopatcong, Kittatinny, Lenape Valley, Newton and Wallkill Valley.
INDEPENDENCE
Chatham, Dover, Madison, Morris Catholic, Parsippany, Pequannock, and St. Elizabeth.
LIBERTY
Boonton, Butler, Kinnelon, Morristown-Beard, Mountain Lakes, Villa Walsh and Whippany Park.
The new divisions will allow for a 14-game round robin in the American and National for boys sports and in the National 13-games for girls sports.
The biggest change is that Jefferson is moving from the Freedom and joining the American, leaving the Freedom a team short from last year. The Freedom played a 12-game slate, but this year it will be a 10-game schedule with several crossovers worked in so it will make for easier scheduling, according to DiColo.
Some may feel that 10 games is not enough to declare a champ, but DiColo said the situation is akin to Major League Baseball in that the American League East only houses five teams (albeit they play 19 times).
And I know some schools weren’t happy that Jefferson was in the Freedom in the first place. The Falcons are a Group 3 school in the general classification, but a Group 2 in football, wrestling, boys lacrosse and field hockey.
So overall, to be honest, the first year of realignment wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but it was far from perfect. Like I said earlier, hats off to the NJAC for recognizing the travel issue with the big schools and switching things up.
It is still not my beloved SCIL, but it is getting closer, and it is here to stay for the next two years, so we have to get used to it. Before I go, here is a list of the local teams that won division titles this past school year to the best of my knowledge. If I missed anyone please drop me a line. And I will break down the changes in football in my next blog.
That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.
FALL
FOOTBALL—Pope John (National), Lenape Valley (Freedom), FIELD HOCKEY—Pope John (National), Newton (Freedom), GIRLS XC—Kittatinny (Freedom), Pope John (National), BOYS XC—Wallkill Valley (Freedom), BOYS SOCCER—Newton (Freedom), GIRLS SOCCER—Kittatinny (Freedom), GIRLS TENNIS—Lenape Valley (Freedom).
WINTER
BOYS BASKETBALL—Hopatcong/Jefferson (Freedom), GIRLS BASKETBALL—Jefferson/Wallkill Valley (Freedom), High Point (National), WRESTLING—High Point (American), Newton (Freedom). BOYS SWIMMING—Jefferson (Northern), GIRLS SWIMMING—Pope John (Northern), BOWLING—Sparta (Northern).
SPRING
BASEBALL—Pope John (National), SOFTBALL—Sparta (National), Jefferson/Lenape Valley (Freedom), BOYS TENNIS—Kittatinny (Freedom), BOYS TRACK—Pope John (National), GOLF—Jefferson (Freedom), GIRLS LACROSSE—Vernon/West Morris/Morris Knolls (American).
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